Cheaters
by A Muffin with a Mission
Summary: Cheaters never win, and they never prosper.Oneshot.


Just popped into my head while I was editing, so I decided to type it up.

Anyway, enjoy this little oneshot!

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><p>One more hit, it only looked like one more hit and The Black Swordsman Kirito would save the day, even at the expense of their own life. They were so goddamn close! To the clearers observing the fight, they could barely even make out any of the moves between the two rivals, whether it be the combo hits that they would use to strike, or the simplest of foot maneuvers to dodge and cut.<p>

They thought it was lag, at first. Thought it was just their systems unable to keep up, that they just weren't observant enough, experienced enough. That there was no way that Kayaba had scored that fatal hit, because, Kirito got right up didn't he? So they could only stand on the sidelines in horror unable to do anything as the battle escalated.

Swords weaved an elegant dance of bloodshed and danger, as the two strongest fought for supremacy, and then suddenly they both stopped, Kirito about to win, sword tip right against the villains chest. Hero primed and ready to save the day.

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><p><strong>Klein's POV<strong>

Oh shit. Oh shit. Shitshitshitshitshit. Klein thought it was just a trick of the light, but looking at the status bar floating next to his friend, he knew it wasn't. There wasn't even a blip of red on the translucent meter. Even if he thought there was some bit, so infinitesimally small that he couldn't see with the naked eye, the numbers slightly down and to the right of the bar and his name. 0/18500.

Dead.

But he was still there! Still fighting for revenge, to save Asuna! So they might be alright!

Then again, why had he stopped? Looking closer, he could see his form was wavering, crystallizing along the edges into those damned blue crystals. Kayaba seemed puzzled as well, prepared for the killing blow.

What happened next came as a bit more of a surprise. Mere minutes after rising back up after that fatal hit, seconds before winning, face a mishmash of rage, despair, and overwhelming sadness; he stabbed into Kayaba Akihiko and killed him.

Frozen as he was a second before, Klein could only assume it was because of some issue in morality, or something similar, or maybe he wanted to make Kayaba stew in his own despair, but neither seemed like something the Kirito he knew would do, but, anger and sadness made people do things that they wouldn't be proud of later, or things that were unlike their usual selves.

He called out to Kirito, as Kayaba collapsed into nonexistence, "Kirito! Congrat-"

And then his bubble burst, he remembered that Kirito had no HP, and was on borrowed time. That Asuna had been killed by Kayaba minutes before. The triumphant smile slipped off his face faster than blood out of a lamb at slaughter.

His friend shattered.

So standing there numb, was where Klein found himself, waiting for something to happen. He expected the game to shut off, for a fanfare of instruments, to wake up to family and friends at his bedside.

What they got wasn't what they were expecting.

A image that looked like the GM from the start of the game appeared over the battle arena, and he assumed something similar was appearing game wide. The voice that came out of the robe was nothing like it was in the beginning. It was cold, dreary, and disappointed.

Blue light surrounded him and they found themselves on level one, in the town center. Where it all began.

The sky turned into a sea of blood red, sharply contrasting the normal blue hue, and upon looking more closely, he realized that instead of solid color, it was intersecting and overlapping ERROR signs.

He ran, trying to find his guild members and their friends as players continued to be teleported into the area. He didn't manage to find all of them, he found Lisbeth, Agil, and a few of the members of Fuurinkazan, but he couldn't find Silica or some of the other players that he hung out with regularly. He hoped they were safe, or as safe as they could be in such a unknown they stuck together and faced the unknown head-on.

The Game Master appeared in the sky, and the players shudder in unison, their God's invisible eyes staring down on them as if they were nothing but ants. The voice that came out was directly opposite, it was cheery and full of happiness.

"Oh wow! How everyone has grown! I am so proud of you all."

He sounded genuinely happy for them- and the confusion of the players was palpable in the air. Personally, Klein was particularly creeped out. The body and voice didn't match AT ALL. It was too different with what he remembered from lvl 1. Mutterings spread across the town square. He looked around and noticed with not a little bit of sadness how many players there were compared to the original, while it had been crowded before, he was more than capable of having a dance contest now, without bumping into the nearest player.

"I have some good news and some bad news!~ 3"

Huh?

"The good news! The game has been cleared!" This was greeted with exited murmerings and shouts of happiness.

"Finally!" "Thank god!", "It's finally over." Sighs of relief were all over the place, and Klein couldn't help but contribute.

He grabbed the nearby Lisbeth and Agil and pulled them into tight hugs, hugging as hard as he can.

He was almost crying with relief. Lisbeths hand was tight on his arm, gripping painfully. While Agil was standing there, stoic as usual but with tears streaming down his face. He was laughing while crying, so relieved, so happy, that he was going to be able to see his wife again. He looked like he was about to jump for joy.

Lisbeth turned to him, seemingly the only one without tears in her eyes, "...Where are Kirito and Asuna? Argo?"

He crashed, and he could tell from her face that she knew his words weren't going to be pleasant, and she could only close her eyes and shake her head, hands clamped protectively over her ears, "NO! I DON'T WANT TO hear it." Petering out at the end, collapsing to the ground and beginning to cry quietly.

"And then the bad news." Klein jumped, as did most of the other revelers on the floor, having completely forgotten about the GM standing imposingly above them all.

"Many of you might have noticed, but minutes before the game was cleared, during the battle between myself, Kayaba Akihiko, and one Black Swordsman Kirito, the game experienced an unforeseen amount of lag. This has resulted in" he paused for a second,"exactly 324 deaths. Including myself and the Black Swordsman."

This lag came about as another attempt of one Japanese Government Agency to hack the game once more and free you from your "'prison'".

He even used airquotes.

"The hacking was a success! So, even though the lag invalidated my little match, it seems you all get the lucky end of the stick anyway." He sounded like he was pouting.

"So enjoy your little victory," he sounded like he was grinning, and with a snap of his fingers more trumpets blared, and even though many people died, they couldn't help but celebrate, as their friends would have wanted for them to be happy.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" The laughter of the GM sounded maniacal. It carried easily and everyone stopped. His voice had once again undergone some kind of change. It sounded like ice, and grated on the ears, more than a little crazy.

"_JUST KIDDING"_

"_HAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"_

It just wasn't stopping! Why wouldn't it stop. It just kept going and going and going.

Klein could see people cringing, hiding behind others, hugging, anything to get some kind of comfort.

Others were frozen in a kind of mockery of celebration, faces frozen, bodies stiff and stuck.  
>"Oh, wow. Wooh, you guys thought I'd actually say that; Oh that cracks me up." He seemed almost overcome with laughter.<p>

His hands appeared at the edges of his sleeves, peaking out of the blood red robe, skeletal digits pulling upwards reaching for the edges of his omnipresent hood. They gripped the edge and started gently pulling back-and suddenly it was absent.

Where his face would be, there was only an absence. Nothing at all was there.

"Those silly little guys went and activated a program ~"

Everything went dark-the sky went out, and he couldn't see a thing, only the absence of light. Not even the hand he was waving in front of his own face. Then suddenly light blue glowing torches appeared in front of them.

"One set in place in case of just a situation, tee hee hee. The were bad kiddies, so now you guys gotta be punniiishhheddddd." He drew out the word with obvious glee.

A scream came from the right, followed by the sound of tearing flesh and the splatter of unseen blood.

A growl from the same direction, a screech from high above.

He saw a face he recognized in the dim spirit lights above, and a blur of pigtails and brown hair as she was tackled to the grown. Feral red eyes flashing.

The screaming stopped,

He didn't even dare to imagine why.

He felt something tear into his calf, and he could only see a set of another pair of eyes opposite his own, wide with fear as he felt himself being dragged backwards by the painful grip.

Those eyes then shut in a scream of pain as a low level slime threw itself at her face, and then sizzled and burn.

"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH" and it cut off in a gurgle and a sizzle of burning flesh.

"What the hell… What the hell is happening?!"

Screams were everywhere, and not a single crystal in sight. Pain, something he hadn't really felt before, enveloped him as he felt something else bite into his leg.

Oh god.

Oh god.

Someone, something, God, help him.

Anything.

Something tore at his arm, and he heard and barely felt it crunch through bone, as it chewed and swallowed, hot steamy breath rolling against his skin.

"And to all of you kiddies watching out there," his pained mind imagined some kind of wink, "just a reminder of what happens when you cheat. It's a miracle any of my little friends wanted to come and play! They don't like cheaters."

A bit more laughter.

There was a pulling sensation on his cheek, next to his eyes.

The lights suddenly came back on but only partially, and he was greeted by the sight of a large bird in front of his eye, swallowing something, just before it pecked the other one out, and a dagger dog bit out his throat.

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><p><strong>Kikuoka Seijirou POV<strong>

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><p>"Sir? It was a complete failure."<p>

"Yes sir. It is being televised live."

"Sir."

"Every single one of them is dead."

"Yes sir."

The man on the phone raised his hand, a gun clenched tightly in it, and then stuck it in his mouth. It was cold on his tongue.

He pulled the trigger.

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><p>Not proud of this, but, I had fun writing it, and I couldn't help it. Maybe one day I'll go back and fix it up a bit, but its far more likely that it will stay like this forever. It isn't very refined, or very good, but I felt like I shouldn't leave it on the corner of my desktop for the rest of eternity.<p>

Anyway, Have a nice day!

XD


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